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This study focuses on an under-investigated link between work–life interrelationships and health: how low-wage work impacts employees' health by influencing their management of health-related concerns. Using structuration theory, interviews with 21 low-wage service work (LWSS) women workers were analyzed to identify structures and interactional dynamics in their reported interactions with their supervisors about health-related matters that intersected with work. Three 'corporate privilege' structures or 'recipes for action' emerged, along with three 'life friendly' structures. The structures intersected in three dynamics of supervisor–worker interactions: (a) collaborative reproduction of 'corporate privilege' structures, (b) collaborative resistance to 'corporate privilege,' and (c) contested reproduction and resistance. In some situations, supervisors and workers alike reproduced corporate privilege structures. In other circumstances, supervisors and workers resisted corporate privilege structures, and in still others supervisors and workers contested structures differently, pointing to potential opportunities for more systematic disruption through organizational interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative case study employs structuration theory to reveal d/Discourses in tension within athletic injury treatment and rehabilitation (i.e. a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I football team). A thematic analysis exposed four concurrent discourses: injury heroism, injury recovery, athlete-centered care, and body commodification. These discourses created a structurational divergence nexus that enabled and constrained members. This nexus resulted in unintended consequences for the structuring of both injury disclosure and rehabilitation. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed as well as suggestions for practitioners in other bodywork and injury-prone organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participants in interorganizational collaborations must manage tensions between the competing goals of efficiently accomplishing their objectives and creating participatory decision-making. For this study, structuration theory provided a lens for examining how collaboration members communicatively created initial structures and then used their agency to modify those structures. Findings from observations and interviews examined how the initial and modified communication structures both enabled and constrained group members. As members produced and reproduced the system, they modified the balance of participation and efficiency. These findings emphasize the need for members of collaborations to carefully manage their communication to maintain the desired balance of participation and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To expand upon perspectives on the commons dilemma, we developed an online experiment grounded in David Seibold and colleagues' structurational perspective on group decision-making. We created manipulations based on three modalities of structure: dense versus sparse networks (domination), collective versus individual identity (signification), and social sanction versus non-social sanction (legitimation). The results revealed that modalities of signification positively influence contribution rates when participants were communicated information meant to stimulate a collective identity. In contrast to our hypotheses, individuals contributed more in sparse, rather than dense network structures. For managers of public goods, our results suggest that communication that emphasizes common identity may be important for mobilizing collective action and that they should also pay special attention to communication overload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a test of how information mentioned in a group discussion affects post-discussion attitude polarization, participants stated their opinion about Donald Trump and read nine pieces of information about him that either reflected positively (three pieces) or negatively (six pieces) on his character. The participants then participated in an online chat in which the majority had a negative opinion of Trump. The online chat involved confederate group members who either discussed only new, unshared information the participant had not read before discussion or shared information the participant had just read. The experiment reported herein tested persuasive arguments theory (PAT) against structuration theory by comparing how group discussion of either shared or novel, unshared information affects attitude polarization. The data failed to support PAT's premise that unshared arguments are more persuasive than shared arguments and contribute to polarization. Only minority members in the shared chat condition exhibited attitude polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While commonly construed as an ethic and/or balanceable life quality, work rarely is looked upon as being a disease. Drawing from theories of structuration as well as work–life balance literature, this study examines how societal trends of production and efficiency impact the embodied nature of human life, particularly for self-proclaimed workaholics. Through conducting a narrative analysis of texts written by workaholics, the author investigates how individuals reconstruct meanings for their work through their use of diagnostic and therapeutic terminology. Themes for the analysis center on how workaholics define and diagnose workaholism, express their experiences of this addiction, and reconstruct their lifestyles through recovery. The findings underscore the benefits of intersecting health discourse with occupational and ethical discourses surrounding work. Meanwhile, the author cautions that framing work as a disease focuses attention on individuals' problems and thus runs the risk of overlooking potentially “ill” societal conditions that warrant further concern. Suggestions are offered for promoting discussions that raise explicit awareness of the embodied interconnections between work and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that high-intensity telecommuters report feeling socially isolated, this study uses structuration and constructivist theories to examine the role of coworker relationships and informal communication in the context of high-intensity telecommuting. Teleworkers' organizational commitment, job satisfaction, informal communication with peers, and coworker liking were examined. Coworker liking was positively related to teleworkers' informal communication satisfaction with coworkers, and with their organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Complaining talk was negatively related to teleworkers' commitment and satisfaction; informal communication satisfaction was positively related to organizational commitment. Coworker liking moderated the effect of teleworkers' complaining talk on organizational commitment, but not job satisfaction. The buffering effect of coworker relationships is discussed as a resource for organizational members engaged in high-intensity telecommuting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although our popular culture stereotypes relationships with in-laws as problematic, these relationships have largely been overlooked by communication researchers. In contrast to existing studies focusing on dyadic relationships, this study looked at how in-laws are assimilated into the family group as newcomers, using structuration theory to examine how routines are reproduced in families. In personal interviews, participants described how their families had assimilated newcomers or how they themselves were received into their spouse's families. A thematic analysis revealed specific communication routines that had to be adjusted upon entry of newcomers, including conversational topics, expected amount of interaction, use of joking, and conversational styles. Adjustments to these routines, although difficult to negotiate because they were not openly discussed, helped to transform the family of childhood into the family of adulthood. Structuration theory would suggest that the perceived stress in relationships with in-laws occurs because newcomers upset the comfort of families by disrupting their communication routines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the atmosphere. Months later, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board determined the immediate cause of the crash, but it also alluded to relationships NASA has with other organizations as being problematic, suggesting that Columbia was a painful symptom of a deeper disease. This paper uses resource dependency theory and structuration theory together to examine NASA's interorganizational network, illustrating that NASA is involved in multiple toxic relationships and that a pattern has developed through NASA miscues in the last 20 years. This case study demonstrates the advantages of using these two theories together, how such integration provides a useful perspective for understanding power and change in interorganizational relationships. The paper also discusses practical suggestions for NASA specifically, but also for others as organizations become more dependent on external stakeholders and interorganizational relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the impact of communication on the benefit utilization of the work-family benefit. Application of Structuration Theory book to examine the responses from the organizational members; Use of Coworker Communication; Process of policy implementation.